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What's going on with Barbrey Dustin? | In Deep Geek | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: What's going on with Barbrey Dustin?
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Barbrey Dustin is a complex character in "A Song of Ice and Fire" whose deep-seated hatred for Ned Stark, stemming from personal tragedy and perceived insults to her house, masks a more nuanced set of loyalties and motivations that are not strictly pro-Stark or pro-Bolton.
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What is going on with Barbrey Dustin in
A Song of Ice and Fire? Whose side is
she on and what really motivates her?
Let's take a look. Hi everyone, this is
Robert. Welcome to Indeep Geek. On this
channel, we cover A Song of Ice and
Fire, The Lord of the Rings, and other
great fantasy books and TV shows like
The Witcher. Welcome. The character of
Barbrey Dustin is one of the most
intriguing in A Song of Ice and Fire.
She has opinions and a history and quite
rarely for a northern lord or lady
clearly despises the memory of Ned
Stark. But there are clearly layers
there that we often don't peel back. She
isn't just a Starkhating Bolton
supporter. There's a lot more going on
there than meets the eye. So let's start
with her history. She was born Barbrey
Rizwell. The Rizwells aren't as
prominent in the story as some other
northern houses, but they are a
significant house nonetheless to the
extent that Lord Rodrik Rizwell thought
to marry his eldest daughter Barbrey to
a Stark. There's nothing wrong with
aiming high, but we know of at least one
Rizwell, who had previously married a
Stark, so it's a reasonable possibility.
This hope was only fanned by Brandon
Stark, that's Ned's brother, who was
then the heir to Winterfell, growing
close to Barbrey. He was being fostered
down in nearby Baritton at the time and
often rode with his friends in the reals
Rizwell country. They became lovers, the
two of them. She fell deeply in love
with him. We don't hear his side of
things. And then this.
The day I learned that Brandon was to
marry Catelyn Tully, though there was
nothing sweet about that pain. He never
wanted her. I promise you that. He told
me so on our last night together. But
Rickard Stark had great ambitions, too.
Southron ambitions that would not be
served by having his heir marry the
daughter of one of his own vassels.
Afterward, my father nursed some hope of
wedding me to Brandon's brother, Eddard,
but Catelyn Tully got that one as well.
I was left with young Lord Dustin until
Ned Stark took him from me. So, she fell
in love with Brandon. Then he got
promised to another. Then her father
hoped to marry her to Ned. Then that
didn't happen because Ned married
Catelyn Tully again for political
reasons. So she was instead married to
William Dustin. As far as we can tell,
that was a positive, albeit short,
relationship. She may not have married
the man she loved or gained her father
quite the political match he wanted, but
perhaps she could have grown to love her
husband. We'll never know. Within half a
year, though, he had gone to war with
Ned Stark against her pleading, and he
then died at the Tower of Joy. He was
one of Ned's six companions there along
with Mark Rizwell. Incidentally, we're
not told exactly who he was, but his
name suggests a relation of Lady
Barbrey, so she probably lost two people
there. Barbrey Dustin again picks up the
story, telling Theon that Ned Stark
returned the horse to me on his way back
home to Winterfell. He told me that my
lord had died an honorable death, that
his body had been laid to rest beneath
the Red Mountains of Dawn. He brought
his sister's bones back north, though,
and there she rests. But I promise you,
Lord Eddard's bones will never rest
beside hers. I mean to feed them to my dogs.
dogs.
Theon did not understand. His his bones.
Her lips twisted. It was an ugly smile,
a smile that reminded him of Ramsay's.
Catelyn Tully dispatched Lord Eddard's
bones north before the Red Wedding, but
your iron uncle seized Mo Kalin and
closed the way. I've been watching ever
since. Should those bones ever emerge
from the swamps, they will get no
further than Bariton. She threw one last
lingering look at the likeness of Eddard
Stark. We are done here.
I did a whole other video about where
those bones might be, but her hatred of
Ned Stark is clear to see. And that is
where some fans analysis of her
character ends. She comes across as
rather bitter and holding grudges
against Ned Stark even after his death
against the maesters, or the gay sheep
as she calls them, for apparently
encouraging Rickard Stark's Southron
ambitions, thereby preventing her from
marrying Brandon. She always wears
black, seemingly in mourning for the man
or men she lost. Her words are cutting.
Her smile is described as ugly and
feral. George R. Martin has leaned
heavily into making us see her as a not
particularly sympathetic character,
which has led many to assume that when
she appears in the story as having bent
the knee to Roose Bolton, she and House
Dustin, which she now leads, must be one
of the few unambiguously anti-Stark and
probolton people in the north. She hates
the memory of Ned Stark, so why not?
Well, I want to suggest to you that
there are plenty more layers going on
here than that. Which isn't to say that
she isn't sincere in hating Ned Stark
even after his death. She definitely
seems to be sincere, and she may even be
a bit justified in that. It's clear that
Ned not only didn't bring her husband's
bones back north with him, while
obviously bringing his own sisters, but
also clearly refused to tell her even
where they were buried, so Barbrey
Dustin could go and bring them back
herself. And House Dustin were not just
a normal house in that regard. We think
of the Starks as being connected to
their dead, but House Dustin are, if
anything, even more so. Their home is
called Barotton because it is in the
middle of the Barrow Lands where the
ancient dead of the north are buried.
Their hall is literally built on top of
the great barrerow where the first king
of the first men is supposed to be
buried. They take burying their dead seriously.
seriously.
Ned had his reasons for not bringing
back those bones, but because he refused
to explain them, it wasn't just a
hurtful thing to do to Barbrey Dustin.
It was an insult to House Dustin as a
whole. But all that said, her hatred of
the Starks is more nuanced than it might
appear. Witness this conversation with
Theon. He speaks first. My lady, why do
you hate the Starks?
He studied him. For the same reason you
love them. Why do you love the Starks?
I Theon put a gloved hand against the
pillar. I wanted to be one of them and
never could. We have more in common than
you know, my lord.
She wanted to be a Stark and clearly
doesn't hate all Starks. When she sees
the statue of her old lover, Brandon,
she takes off her glove and touches his
knee, then starts reminiscing about the
things he said and their time together.
So, she doesn't think that all Starks
are necessarily bad. One definitely not.
And her passing reference to Lyanna was
also quite kindly. And to add another
level to this, even if she is disposed
against the Starks, there is someone
else that she does appear to hate quite
a lot. Ramsay Bolton. Again, this is a
grudge from her past, though again it
seems quite justified. Barbara Dustin
was close to her nephew, Demeric. He was
her page in Bariton for 4 years. And if
you're wondering where you've heard that
name Demeric before, he was also the
firstborn and only son of Barbber's
sister Bethany and Roose Bolton, the
heir to House Bolton. Demeric, always
having wanted a brother, visited his
bastard half-brother, Ramsay, then died
in mysterious circumstances. Almost no
one doubts that Ramsay killed him.
Barbrey Dustin certainly thinks so. We
know that she holds a grudge, so we can
expect her to still hate him and want
revenge. And sure enough, when the
Boltons arrive at Bariton, she makes a
point of refusing to let Ramsay enter
her great hall. Make no mistake, that
was a huge political move. The Ramsies
had just taken control of the North by
taking part in a massacre of their
northern allies. Ramsay was clearly
livid at the snub, and she still refused
to let him in. It would be enough to
make any new warden of the North
question her loyalty, which Roose Bolton
actually does, though he concludes that
she is still on his side. He says this
to Ramsay. Lady Barbrey is a woman who
knows how to nurse a grievance. Be
grateful for that. Bariton is staunch
for Bolton, largely because she still
holds Ned Stark to blame for her
husband's death. Staunchch? Ramsay
seethed. All she does is spit on me. The
day will come when I'll set her precious
wooden town a fire. Let her spit on
that. See if it puts out the flames.
Roose made a face as if the ale he was
sipping had suddenly gone sour. We
appear strong for the moment. Yes, we
have powerful friends in the Lannisters
and the Freys and the grudging support
of much of the North. But what do you
imagine is going to happen when one of
Ned Stark's sons turns up? How many of
our grudging friends do you imagine we'd
retain if the truth were known? Only
Lady Barbrey, whom you would turn into a
pair of boots, inferior boots.
So Ramsay clearly hates her back. And
Roose thinks she is loyal to him, not
out of any affection for him or the
Boltons, but despite that. and because
of her hatred of Ned on balance that she
hates the dead ex Lord of the Starks
more than the still alive heir to the
Boltons perhaps. But then what happens
if Ramsay kills Roose and takes over
which there are more than a few
indications he may be thinking about.
Does she still support the Boltons? It
seems unlikely. One thing that certainly
seems to be the case is that she is
protective of Jane Pool, the fake Arya
whom Ramsay marries. She insists on
keeping Jane under her protection on
route to Winterfell and until the
wedding itself. And she may even have
guessed that the fake Arya is fake.
Theon thinks that she may have done.
It's probably worth another video.
There's evidence a few of the other
Northerners aren't convinced she really
is Arya or that all the Starks are dead.
And we can add to all of that the fact
that Barbrey Dustin also clearly hates
the phrase for what they did at the Red
Wedding. There were Baritan soldiers
there, too. If you've seen my video
about the snowman in Winterfell, you'll
know that I think there's a chance that
her being made into a snowman or
snowwoman may reveal she is secretly on
the Stark loyalist side. That said, she
has been trying to calm tensions between
the Manderly and Freys in Winterfell and
mentions casually that fake Arya's
crying was harming our cause by
potentially turning the Northerners more
against the Boltons. All of which means
that Barbrey Dustin's loyalties are not
as rapidly anti-S Stark as they are
sometimes made out to be, but also not
obviously against the Bolton regime,
just Ramsay.
Finally, I would draw your attention to
two other curious things. First, her
strange behavior in the Winterfell
crypts. She demands that Theon take her
down there, which is quite an effort,
taking half an hour to dig away the snow
over the entrance. She does the two
things we might expect her to do. gaze
upon the likeness of Brandon Stark and
note where Ned's statue and grave were,
presumably to ensure his bones hadn't
somehow evaded her and made their way
there. But she also very obviously notes
the three missing swords, calling
attention to them. Why does that matter?
Because Wyman Mandley at least knows
that Bran and Rickon survived, having
hidden in the crypts. And although we
don't know everything that Wex, his
witness, revealed, it seems reasonable
that he might have discovered that Bran
and Co took those three swords from the
crypts, which would then be a key bit of
evidence if you want to persuade someone
else in Winterfell that you were telling
the truth about Bran and Rickon
surviving. Might Barbrey Dustin have
been in those crypts, at least partly,
to see whether the swords really were
gone? It's possible. Theon, who is
deceptively observant in these chapters,
certainly wonders whether she might have
told other people about the missing
swords, as if that's the most important
thing they found down there. He seems
aware of the implications and thinks she
might be, too. The second curious thing
is an observation that her actions and
motivations align surprisingly closely
with Mance Raiders. Remember, Mance is
in Winterfell, disguised as Abel the
Bard with six spear wives. She takes an
active interest in the well-being of
fake Arya. They are there to rescue her.
She gets Theon to take her to the
crypts. They try to do the same. She
proactively tries to calm tensions in
Winterfell. So does he. I'm not
suggesting that they are working
together, but their interests do seem to
align. And if she does realize that fake
Arya isn't actually Arya, she might see
her as yet another victim of the Starks
and the Boltons and worthy of her help.
a plague on both their houses. So, where
does all this leave us? Well, we started
by noting that Barbrey Dustin is a
multi-layered character, so we shouldn't
expect her to fit into easy pigeon holes
as a Stark or a Bolton loyalist. She
definitely does hate the Starks, though
not all Starks, mostly just Ned. There's
no indication that she bears any of the
younger family any particular ill will.
And she also really doesn't love the
Boltons. Roose for his role in the Red
Wedding and the phrase for the same
reason and Ramsay for killing her
nephew. At the moment, she seems to
still on balance be publicly supportive
of the Boltons. But if things change, I
do not doubt that she will fall in line
while still trying to ensure that Ned's
bones don't make it back. But what do
you think? What do you think Barbrey
Dustin is up to? Let me know in the
comments below. If you'd like to see
more A Song of Ice and Fire videos,
please click on the link on the left of
your screen. Or if you'd like to support
this channel, thank you. There's a link
to my Patreon page on the right of your
screen. Now, that's all for this time.
Thanks for watching. I'll see you again soon.
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